What many initially thought as a joke has now become a reality – Donald Trump has shattered all expectations and will be the 45th President of the United States of America.

The news was announced just moments ago.

After surprise early victories in Florida, North Carolina, and Ohio, it fell to the Rust Belt states of the industrial midwest to determine America’s fate.

The final result stood with Clinton at 218 and Trump at 276. Trump needed to reach 270 to secure his victory.

Trump’s Victory Speech

Donald Trump started his speech by saying that he had just received a call from Hilary Clinton who congratulated him on his victory.

Trump went on to say, ” I congratulated her and her family on a very, very hard-fought campaign. I mean she fought very hard. Hillary has worked very long and very hard over a long period of time, and we owe her a major debt of gratitude for her service to our country. I mean that very sincerely”.

The world waited to see what he would say next about his plans for The United States, “Now it is time for America to bind the wounds of division. We have to get together. To all Republicans and Democrats and independents across this nation, I say it is time for us to come together as one united people”.

Here’s How The World Reacted

The mood on my Dublin bus is one of unfathomable bleakness, no one is even thanking the bus driver. #Elections2016

One trillion dollars of investment wiped already! Sexism clearly alive and well! And it hasn’t even officially been called! #Elections2016

— Aoife Delaney (@AoifeD7)

The Republican nominee has achieved what many thought improbable. This amongst a series of controversies, extreme policies with wide criticism from both sides, and a history of both racist and sexist behaviour.

City investors gathered around screens to watch Donald Trump give his victory speech, as they prepared for a messy start to trading.

As expected, in his victory speech, Trump promised to be the president for “all Americans” and to reach out to those who didn’t support him. He’s also vowed to use his business experience to help the US by implementing a major new infrastructure spending plan to boost the economy.

Trump calls it a project of “national growth and renewal”.

Ripple Effects Of Trump Winning

In the past week, ‘immigration’ became the top most searched term across the states.

Canadian Immigration Site Crashes

Reuters reported that Canada’s main immigration website suffered repeated downtime since Tuesday night. This as a result of Trump taking the lead in several major states as well as when his prospects for winning the US presidency turned markedly higher.

Surge In Immigrant Registrations In New Zealand

New Zealand immigration site New Zealand Now has also noted over 1593 registrations from citizens in the United States since 2 November.

This is apparently 50% more than a typical month’s registrations – in just seven days.

Stocks

While the stocks fluctuated repeatedly as the election came to a close, and many predicted Trump would win, a certain amount of political uncertainty was expected to be seen in the stocks. The price of bitcoin has surged by as much as 2.6% as Trump edged a lead over rival Hillary Clinton.